The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

vi. you and i (walk a fragile line)

A few mornings after, found Remus sat in the Potters' kitchen, surrounded by James, Lily, Sirius and Peter.

"What time is she arriving, Pads?" Lily asked Sirius.

"In about 10 minutes I think," Sirius said, checking his watch.

Lois Sullivan, or more commonly known in the house as Mrs Padfoot, had gotten back from her trip to America just this morning. And everyone was excited to see her again.

Ever since Lois had agreed to give Sirius a shot in their fifth year, she had become an important person in each of the Marauders' lives. Just like Lily was.

Only a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Sirius excitedly jumped out of his seat to greet his fiancé.

The people left in the kitchen could hear the couple talking as they reunited, before they entered to kitchen.

Lois entered the room and Lily followed Sirius' lead from before and leapt out of her chair, and tackled her into a hug.

"Dear Merlin, I missed you Lo," Lily said. "Left me all alone with these four,"

Lois laughed at Lily's complaint, happy to be back with her best friend. "We should probably get your health checked soon then," The statement was met with cries of protest, as the four men tried to defend themselves quite poorly.

Lois sat down next to Sirius and poured herself a cup of coffee. "So what happened while I was away?"

There was a collective sigh around the table, as the group recalled the events of the past three weeks. "Remus found out who he's marrying,"

"Ooh! Is she nice? Do you know her from Hogwarts?"

"Oh he knows her alright," Sirius commented before Remus could answer the questions that Lois had thrown his way.

"Who is it?" She asked, now excited at the prospect of Remus marrying someone he could love, and who could love him back.

"Aurora Sullivan,"

Lois choked on her coffee at the mention of her twin's name.  Sirius rubbed her back, as she continued to struggle to breathe, spluttering coffee all over the table. Finally Lois had her breathing back to normal. "Well that's fun,"

Remus glared at her. "It's not fun at all. She was fine with me for the last few weeks, until she was cold again halfway through the night we met each other's parents," He explained.

"That sounds like Rory," Lois sighed into her mug, and the people around the table all perked their heads up.

"How do you know Aurora?" "What do you mean 'Rory',?" "I'm sorry, what?"

"Do- Do none of you remember that she's my twin?" Lois asked around the table, looking at the shocked faces of her friends.

"No...," Peter trailed off, trying to remember when they were told this information. "I really don't think you told us,"

Lois thought about it for a few moments, also trying to wrack her brain for when she could have possibly told her friends. "Huh. I guess I didn't," She said. "But it's not like it's hard to put two and two together though, is it? Our surnames are the same, we both speak Russian, we look similar?"

"Ohhh," Everyone said, now realising what they had previously missed, apart from Sirius who sat there looking extremely smug and happy with himself.

"What did you do Padfoot?" James asked wearily. 

"What? Me? What could I have possibly done?"

"You have a smug grin on your face, now spill what you know," Lily said.

"Well, when we met her parents and sister the other night, it wasn't so hard to put it together, I've met them before y'know,"

"And you didn't think to tell us?" James said, jokingly holding his hand over his heart. "I can't believe you would do such a thing to wound me,"

Sirius just grinned at him, the smugness still etched in there.

"Oh shut up, Black," Lily grumbled.

And soon enough, everyone around the table was laughing, enjoying being back in each other's presence, and having banter going back and forth.

"But seriously though-," Remus started, but was cut off by Lois.

"Don't you mean Siriusly," Lois said, wriggling her eyebrows up and down. All of her friends let out a sigh of disappointment, apart from Sirius, who just sat there with a proud look on his face. 

"Anyway," Remus moved on, not wanting to remember that awful joke. "Why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Yeah," Lily added, "We've been friends since fifth year,"

Lois sighed and placed her mug down on the table. "Rory and I aren't really on good terms. And we haven't been since fifth year,"

"Why? What did she do?" 

Lois sighed again. She was getting irritated with people always assuming it was her sister's fault, just because she was a Slytherin. "It's more of what I did,"

"Okay then. What did you do?" Remus corrected the question.

"Before we got to Hogwarts, we were really close. We didn't really enjoy being apart," Lois said. "When she was sorted into Slytherin, and me into Hufflepuff, we told each other that we wouldn't let our houses get in the way. But over the course of the next four years, our relationship became strained, and around about Christmas of fifth year, when I had just started dating Sirius, and hanging around you guys, we got into a huge argument," Lois started to feel tears prickling at her eyes, threatening to fall, as she recalls the events to her friends. "And we haven't spoken since,"

The room had fallen silent, as they all took the new information in.

"So, when you mean haven't spoken since?" Peter questioned, unsure about what Lois had meant.

"I mean we haven't had any forms of communication since we were 16,"

"Shit, are you okay?" Sirius looked at her, and noticed the forming tears. He didn't need an answer before he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting hug.

Lois allowed herself to let a few tears fall, but not too many as she didn't want to cry in front of her friends. After a few more seconds, Lois pulled away and wiped her eyes. 

"I'm really sorry, Lois. Losing a sister is hard," Lily said, understanding how she feels.

"Yeah, well it's in the past now, isn't it?" Lois said, trying to laugh, but it came out sounding a bit more like a sob, and raised her hands to her eyes. "Anyway," Lois put on a small smile, not wanting this to ruin the mood. "When will you see her next?"

"Uh," There was a light knock on the door. "Now I think,"

AN

please excuse this god awful chapter, thank you :)